Lockdown (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

In its original American broadcast, "Lockdown" was seen by an estimated 4.53 million household viewers and gained a 2.2/5 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research.[1] This was a 13% increase in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 3.99 million viewers with a 1.9/5 in the 18-49 demographics.[2] This means that 2.2 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode, while 5 percent of all households watching television at that time watched it. With these ratings, Brooklyn Nine-Nine was the second most watched show on FOX for the night, beating Bob's Burgers and Family Guy but behind The Simpsons, fifth on its timeslot and fifth for the night, behind Once Upon a Time, The Simpsons, The OT, and NBC Sunday Night Football.

"Lockdown" received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics. LaToya Ferguson of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "C" grade and wrote, "To those viewers who have been finding season two of Brooklyn Nine-Nine to be weaker than season one, 'Lockdown' might actually be the perfect example of that dip. Throughout the entire episode, there's just constant shallow characterization — which is extremely uncharacteristic at this point in the series —that takes Brooklyn Nine-Nine to a dark place, quality-wise. That's because it takes it to The Jake Peralta Show. Jake Peralta is a good character, and I've sung his praises in most (if not all) of these reviews, but when the show makes him the sole focus and only relies him, with everyone else as nothing more than his sounding boards, the downshift in quality is palpable."[3]

Jackson McHenry of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "While 'Lockdown' all but forgets that history — Jake says he hates the holiday because 'the pilgrims were murderers and turkeys taste like napkins' — it does dig into Jake's surprisingly deep neurosis, and specifically his irrepressible desire to please everyone. In doing so, 'Lockdown' manages to put another spin on Andy Samberg's typically broad performance, making his eternally upbeat attitude seem manic and even desperate. It's not a perfect episode by any means, but it opens up a lot of possibilities for the character."[4] Allie Pape from Vulture gave the show a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "'Lockdown' lacked the absurdist zip of some of the other stuck-in-the-precinct episodes, like 'The Jimmy Jab Games' or the first Halloween episode. (The closest we got: Boyle doing the 'Single Ladies' dance, with two perps backing him up from behind the doors of the holding cell.) It still boasted plenty of good laugh lines, but I would have loved to see more advantage taken of the wild cast of characters stuck in there, who were more or less reduced to an angry mob despite getting some really awesome team nicknames."[5]

Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote, "'Lockdown' felt like a throwback to those frustrating episodes from early in the first season where Jake would spend 80 percent of the episode ignoring obviously wise advice from Captain Holt, getting deeper and deeper into trouble until he finally listened. It's a pattern I'd hoped both Jake and the show had moved beyond, but here we got a variation on it, with Amy playing the role of Holt – even though, technically, the whole story was about Jake having to fill in for the captain on Thanksgiving. That Jake wants to be everybody's buddy, rather than the stern authority figure he's temporarily replacing, fits his character, but the whole A-story dragged as we waited for Jake to stop being such an idiot. With that many characters stuck in one location, there were some amusing moments in the margins (my favorite was Boyle doing the 'Single Ladies' dance with the hookers), but on a whole, this one didn't work."[6] Andy Crump of Paste gave the episode a 6.8 and wrote, "'Lockdown' has a strong set-up and great jokes at its fingertips, but it doesn't have much direction, either. That leads to a whole lot of nothing, instead of growth among the show’s primary and secondary cast members; if anybody really learns anything here, it's Jake, put in charge over Amy for reasons that the script treats as perfunctory."[7]